Is man really a thinking reed?

I was looking for the topic of my speech at the local Toastmasters club when I came across the TED presentation "The real reason for brains" by Daniel Wolpert.

His argument that the brain is not an organ to think, but one for controlling complicated movements of body was gripping. It was also relevant for my assignment at that speech, effective use of body language.

I constructed my speech around the episode he introduced in the presentation, that the chess computer Deep Blue beat the human grandmaster, Mr Kasparov in 1997, but the computer would be no match for a five-year-old kid in physically moving chess pieces.

In the opening of my own speech, I challenged the audience if man is really a thinking reed. In the end of it, I concluded that man is more like a dancing straw as the brain is a controller of complicated movements. Fortunately, I managed to make it interesting enough and received good feedback.

I included the following question in my speech, "Is it actually easier said than done, if a brain is not to think but to control complicated actions?" I mean by "said", all the details required to reproduce the exact actions involved are explicitly expressed.

I found that it is rather easier done than said, as I am writing about what I had done in my speech ;-)

Ray

New Year's Resolution

A bit late to say happy new year, but this is my first post for 2012. So I would like to share my new year's resolution here.

Last year's one was "Make time work for me." It worked to some extent as I started many things which might work for me in the future. Some of them are now getting traction.

However, the catastrophic earthquake in Japan on 11th March and the following nuclear disaster remind me of the Buddhism doctrine that nothing in the world is under complete control of a human, the cause of every pain in human life.

So, I have chosen "Benefit from the unexpected" for this year's resolution. Contrary to what it may sound, it actually means "leave nothing to chance." To benefit from the unexpected, you need to be ready for them even though you don't know what they will exactly be. In other words, "Preparedness with Flexibility" is my policy for 2012.

Ray

Sheer competitions behind "invented" traditions in Japan

Last evening, my family enjoyed one of "traditional" Christmas foods in Japan, Kentucky Fried Chickens (KFC).

We never did so, however, while we were living in Japan. You can search YouTube to learn how spectacular it can be there. You would need to reserve a Christmas bucket weeks before and line up in long queue to be served even if you present yourself at specified date and time.

Here in Auckland, New Zealand, it is quite easy. No booking, no queues. You can just pop in a shop and order as usual. Even faster than ordinary time, you can get a family meal from friendly staff in Christmas T-shirt. Unfortunately no Christmas wrappings are available, though.

It is interesting if you take it into account that KFC is one of few restaurant chains operates as usual all the way through Christmas time in New Zealand. Most shops in Japan operate on normal hours around Christmas as it is not a holiday there. All the fuss about KFC in Japan is not the result of absence of competition.

In the opposite, it is actually the result of sheer competition among businesses. KFC in Christmas is just an example of such "invented" traditions. Some have become truly traditions with about 200 years of history. Japanese have a custom to eat eels on the mid summer day called 'Doyo no Ushi no Hi" which is specified each year by an oriental calendar. It is said to be originally promoted by a Japanese inventor, Hiraga Gennai.

Others are more recent, Giving chocolate from female to male in St Valentine Day, Eating long sushi rolls without a word towards a certain direction on the day before Chinese New Year Day and so on.

You may see an evil of commercialism here, but I think, it comes from, at least in part, the desire of general public in Japan to be entertained. They are always seeking new excitements and inspirations. If you are doing a business with Japanese it may be you who creates the next Japanese tradition.

Thank you for reading my blog this year. I wish you all a happy new year.

Ray

"Nothing to say" is the ultimate praise in Japanese language

In the previous post, I mentioned "something bigger than themselves and presumably immortal" which samurai would wish to die for. I intentionally avoided the word "God" in the enumeration of what the phrase would represent.

When asked about religion, Japanese often claim themselves to have no religion or God to believe in. I think it is misconception by themselves as most Japanese actually behave like deeply religious and faithful people. Thus the notion of having no religion should be interpreted as such that they don't have any formal description of their religion or God rather than literal disbelief in such a concept.

In Japanese-sphere, words are in some way like money. You can value almost everything with money. But the ultimate values would not allow to be given certain price tags. One's religion and, if I dare to use the word, "God" are in the realm beyond the valuation by words.

Love is in the same league. The foremost Japanese novelist, Natsume Soseki argued that the English phrase "I love you." couldn't be translated into Japanese and it should be rewritten like "Tonight's moon is beautiful (as you are beside me)." to be expressed in proper Japanese at all.

If the love between man and woman is beyond words' description, what is to say about the love of God. Indeed "Nothing to say (about it)." is the ultimate praise for something special in traditional use of Japanese language.

Ray

Certainty of death and uncertainty of its meaning

"I found that Bushido (the way of samurai) means to die." It is the most famous phrase in a bible of samurai, Hagakure.

The only one thing certain in life is mortality. Sometime, somewhere, everyone dies, including you and me. Then, what is the meaning of this certain death? Why do we live and what is the point to live if we all eventually die whatever we do while we are alive? That would be the greatest uncertainty we all need to cope with.

I think nobility of samurai comes from the fact they found the answer for these questions. They choose to die for something bigger than themselves and presumably immortal. It may be for their distinguished samurai families, for the honour as brave warriors, for the ultimate truth or for their homeland implying the mother nature.

Once a meaning for the certain and inevitable death is affirmed, one can live a life with warranted cause and meaning. Patriotism and religious devotion may have a similar effect.

Today's samurai men and women in Japan seem to be struggling to find "something bigger than themselves and immortal." Decades ago, that used to be the strong Japanese economy and most of Japanese were proud of being part of it. It was not necessarily from greed or arrogance, rather as their raison d'être. Finding a viable alternative would be a key to the revival of Japan from the current unprecedented crisis.

Ray

Flowers rather than bombs

Sun Tzu said, "Victorious strategist secures victory first and then engages in the war. Losing strategist engages in the war first and then seeks victory."

In the summer of 1941, the young and brightest officers in Japanese imperial forces secretly  conducted a thorough and precise simulation of the imminent war against the United States of America. The final report forecasted surprisingly accurate sequence of events the history would see except the Perl Harbor attack and Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.

Then the Army Minister Hideki Tojo dismissed the report, saying that the war would not necessarily unfold as advance calculations. He said that there were always the unexpected in the war as we won the Russo-Japanese war seemed hopeless.

Sun Tzu said, "Many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat."

There was another Japanese did some calculations before the war. He pointed out the amount of trade with Britain and America was twice as large as those with Japanese colonies so it was pointless to open hostilities against Britain and America.

The country remembering the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor is the same country helped Japan in the midst of unprecedented earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters as "Tomodachi".

Also, this year is the 130th anniversary of Hawaiian King Kalakaua's visit to Japan in which Japan declined his proposal of the Pacific alliance.

Ray

The country where you can't drive to the Motor Show

As a Toyota fan who turned to a Subaru fan after Japan's largest automaker failed to produce road-going version of Corolla WRC, I was delighted to hear finally Toyota GT 86/Subaru BRZ made its debut at Tokyo Motor Show as a production car.

Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to drive a legendary AE86 Corolla Levin/Sprinter Trueno. However, my father used to have Toyota Carina sport sedan with the same famous 4A-GE engine turned to 140 brake horsepower in front wheel drive configuration and I had drove it time to time. The Carina looked exactly like an ordinary small family car, but with the high revving 4A-GE, it ran like a sport car. Not like a tail happy rear wheel drive sister, though.

The sport cars once dominated the Japanese car market are now endangered species there. For younger generations pleasure of driving is a thing of past, or exists only in games and manga. As majority of Japanese household just can't afford second car, these less practical cars could not survive decades of economic slump. The combination of high performance and utility in Subaru WRX and Mitsubishi Evo has evolved under such circumstance.

Actually Japanese motor fans can't drive to Tokyo Motor Show. As the top page of the event website clearly announces, only viable option to get there is by using public transports just like their everyday's commute to workplaces.

How many of Japanese fully enjoy driving their cars?

Many of them have no time to do it. Every weekday, they spend hours having themselves carried back and force in unbelievably crowded trains. On weekends and holidays, roads to popular attractions are all congested. Vehicle taxes and legal maintenance fees are ridiculously expensive. The road code is out-dated and impractical. The enforcement by police is arbitrary. In Japan, having a car does not mean freedom of mobility. Rather, it brings a lot of restrictions and compromises.

Many of sport cars lost their playing grounds in Japan are now enjoying New Zealand roads. Japanese cars have been providing freedom and joy of driving to people around the world but not so much in Japan. What an irony it is! I hope the debut of Toyota GT 86/Subaru BRZ reminds Japanese what they enjoyed a few decades earlier, the days with full of motions.

Ray